Stadtwerke Ratingen Mehrkampf Meeting 2024 - Heptathlon (Day 1, 22nd June 2024)

I have really been looking forward to the weekend of 22nd and 23rd June 2024 for a while. Even though there were some unfortunate clashes with floorball events in the region, the Stadtwerke Ratingen Mehrkampf Meeting 2024 was on my list, after I covered it many years ago with sport-live.net already. Especially this year, the combined event athletics meeting was some of the very last chances to make the cut for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Thus, you could foresee an interesting competition during this weekend in the city next to Dusseldorf. Even the weather was fine, after days of heavy rain before. Here is my coverage of the first day of the (female) Heptathlon.

This posting comes with a section of 441 major size pictures in the 2024 Ratingen Mehrkampf Meeting section of the sports galleries.

Städtisches Stadion Ratingen – The Venue

Ratingen is one of the classic venues for combined events athletics in Europe. The city is located close to Dusseldorf Airport (DUS) and thus also very attractive and easy to reach for international competitors. The stadium itself is rather central and also quite nicely connected by public transport, e.g. by the U72 underground / tram line. The capacity of the venue is roughly 5,000 spectators, which includes a covered grandstand and a covered seating area on the opposite side.

Mehrkampf Meeting Ratingen – Heptathlon Day 1

After the Men’s Decathlon started at 11:00 with the 100m sprint race, the female athletes kicked off their day with the 100m Hurdles at 11:20.

100m Hurdles

Four heats had to be set up for the first discipline in the Heptathlon. The fourth and final run had the fastest runners, with French Esther Conde-Turpin getting her first small price for the winner of the discipline. British Holly Mills was obstructed in the second heat and was granted a re-run at the end of the competition, finishing with a time of 14.60 sec.

	Athlete	sec
1st	Esther Conde-Turpin (France)	13.25
2nd	Ninali Zheng (China)	13.32
3rd	Carolin Schäfer (Germany)	13.35

High Jump

Two high jump areas ran the competition in parallel. Despite presumably weaker Group B started with just 1.48m (while Group A kicked off at 1.57m), the competitions were both active for quite a while. However, Anna-Lena Obermaier (Germany), Esther Conde-Turpin (France) and Laura Voß (Germany) successfully crossed the bar at 1.75m in Group B, while four competitors succeeded at 1.78m in Group A. Out of those, Croatian Jana Koczak was the only athlete also passing 1.81m and thus was the best heptathlete in high jump.

	Athlete	m
1st	Jana Koscak (Croatia)	1.81
2nd	Ninali Zheng (China)	1.78
3rd	Sandrina Sprengel (Germany)	1.78

Shot Put

Croatian Jana Koscak was in the lead after two events. However, her 12.19 meters in the shot put just lead to the 17th spot in that event, which made her drop to the sixth spot. Germans Vanessa Grimm and Carolin Schäfer were the best heptathletes in the third event of the competition. This made Schäfer jump from the seventh spot after two events to the top of the athletes so far.

	Athlete	m
1st	Vanessa Grimm (Germany)	14.43
2nd	Carolin Schäfer (Germany)	14.40
3rd	Elisa Pineau (France)	14.25

200m

Australian Tori West was the fastest runner over 200 meters in the final event of the day. Germans Carolin Schäfer and Sandrina Schäfer placed second and third. Two ladies, Austrian Ivona Dadic and Ukrainian Yuliya Loban, did not make it through the first day and had to bow out of the competition.

	Athlete	sec
1st	Tori West (Australia)	24.14
2nd	Carolin Schäfer (Germany)	24.17
3rd	Sandrina Sprengel (Germany)	24.21

Heptathlon Total Result After Day 1

Here are the Top 10 athletes after the first day. The intermediate score before the three second day events was quite close, though. Thus, many athletes still felt to be in a good position to finally be in the winners’ ceremony at the end of the combined event. Nonetheless, favorite Carolin Schäfer already felt to be in the most comfortable position for that.

	Athlete	Points
1.	Carolin Schäfer (Germany)	3,736
2.	Sandrina Sprengel (Germany)	3,709
3.	Ninali Zheng (China)	3,651
4.	Tori West (Australia)	3,633
5.	Elisa Pineau (France)	3,630
6.	Vanessa Grimm (Germany)	3,629
7.	Kate O’Connor (ireland)	3,601
8.	Esther Conde-Turpin (France)	3,593
9.	Jana Koscak (Croatia)	3,584
10.	Celia Perron (France)	3,532

Mehrkampf Meeting Ratingen 2024 – Heptathlon Day 1 – Gallery

In the 2024 Ratingen Mehrkampf Meeting section of my sports gallery, there is a designated major size picture gallery with 441 pictures of this match at